Map/Chart > The Middle States

A view of the town of Charleston from James Island

This beautiful watercolour view of the town of Charleston is taken directly from the chart The Harbour of Charleston by J. F. W. Des Barres.

Chart Information

Reference:

A303v

Date

1777

Hydrographer/Surveyor/Artist:

J.F.W. Des Barres

Size Of Original:

w 15.5" x h 8"

Paper Type

Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm

Further Information

This view of the beautiful city of Charlestown[1] is taken from the north shore of James Island across the Ashley River from the town. There are many intriguing features to this view, including the steeple of St. Michael's Church, located on the corner of Broad and Meeting streets which, even today, dominates the skyline. The steeple was used throughout the Revolutionary war years as both a landmark for navigation, as well as a look-out post.

To the right of St. Michael's on just by the river wall is the Old Exchange and Provost dungeon where, in the Great Hall in 1774, South Carolina elected delegates to the First Continental Congress . In 1782 the British, who had finally taken Charleston in 1780, condemned Isaac Haynes, a prominent citizen of the region to death for treason against the Crown.

Also the picture it shows of how well-fortified the town was in 1777. The town presented is of course slightly different from that which we see today, inasmuch as the battery on the southern tip of the peninsular has since been extended by some distance.

The outline for the view is a copper-plate engraving which, once pressed, was hand coloured. The original sketch was made by J. F. W. Des Barres, publisher of the Atlantic Neptune.

One of the most important features of the view presented is that, given the lines and angles presented, the view was drawn from north shore of James Island close to Fort Johnson. The Ashley river is not, and never has been, as narrow as depicted in the picture.

The
view presented by Des Barres is one of a peaceful, prosperous and industrious
city, even down to the field workers on the foreground. It is of
course designed to 'promote' Charleston as the jewel in the south.The British were certainly attracted to it, but not perhaps
in the way locals may have liked.

By 1779 the British had adopted a ‘Southern Strategy’ which sought to control the Southern States (North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) by isolating them from the more northerly regions of New England and New York. The strategy assumed that, by controlling the important ports of Charlestown[1] (see also A307, A308), Savannah (A301 and A304), Port Royal (A301, A304 and A306), St Augustin (A414) and others, the Colonial army would be starved of funds and supplies coming-in from overseas.

[1] Charles Town(e) or Charlestown was (re)named after King Charles II of England in 1670, and the city finally adopted it’s present name, Charleston, in 1783 after the War of Independence had ended.